German carnival crash driver 'seemed so satisfied' - eyewitness

An emergency responder who tried to remove the key from a car that had just careered into 60 people at a carnival parade on Monday described how the driver had attacked her, wearing an "empty and dead" expression.

Lea-Sophie Schloemer told Welt television she heard screams and jumped out of the way as the car ploughed through the crowd and then crashed in the town of Volkmarsen in western Germany, where at least 18 children were among the injured.

When the car, a silver Mercedes-Benz, came to a halt, she ran up to it, opened the driver's door and attempted to take the key out of the ignition.

"Then he grabbed my hair and started to choke me and tried to start the car again, which he didn't manage to do," Schloemer said of the driver, adding that she recognised his car.

Three local men then punched the driver to restrain him.

"He didn't say a word. He looked at you empty and dead and seemed so satisfied," she said. "It was really unnerving how satisfied he seemed."

A friend pulled Schloemer away from the car and she administered first aid to two injured people, a child and an older woman.

"It wasn't an accident, nor was it an attack, but it was what he wanted," she said of the driver, who German media named as Maurice P.

"I know just about everyone from Volkmarsen but he is not one of the original Volkmarsen folk," Schloemer said, adding that she believed he had moved to the town about two years ago. "One knows him by sight perhaps. But no more."

Germany increased security at some carnival processions on Tuesday after Monday's incident in Volkmarsen.

The driver, detained on suspicion of attempted homicide, was being treated for his own injuries. The prosecutors' spokesman said he had not been in a fit state to be questioned overnight, but was not drunk at the time of the incident. Tests for drugs were due in the course of the day.

Rose Monday is the height of the carnival season in Catholic areas of Germany, especially in the Rhineland where tens of thousands of people dress up, drink alcohol and line the streets to watch decorated floats that often mock public figures.

'Why?' Residents of German town hit by carnival rampage want answers

Residents of the small German town devastated by a rampaging driver who wounded dozens of carnival-goers with his Mercedes wondered aloud on Tuesday whether he was crazy or blinded by rage.

One question was on everyone's minds: why would one of their own turn his car into a weapon against men, women and children taking part in a festive parade?

No one seemed to have an answer.

"All I know is that he lived in a big house with his sister not far from the train station. The family bought it a few years ago," said a bespectacled woman who runs a florist in town.

"He also has relatives who live on this street. I have no idea what went wrong. It's a miracle no one was killed," she added, declining to give her name.

As residents began leaving their homes in Volkmarsen on the day after the incident, a Sesame Street-themed birthday cake float in a parking lot and colourful balloons scattered on medieval alleyways was all that that was left of the carnival.

Police cars stood outside two buildings that had been searched by special units. A police officer guarding one of them, near the florist, said relatives of the suspect lived in an apartment there.

"I can't say more than that," he said.

About a kilometre (O.6 miles) to the south, a police car blocked a dirt road leading to shabby terraced houses, some appearing abandoned and one of which several locals said was where the perpetrator lived.

"I know nothing about him or his family. He must have serious issues. With his family or with a lover," said 58-year-old Volkmarsen native Rainer Bellmann, enjoying a sunny morning on his terrace two streets away from the suspect's home. "You have to be crazy or blinded by rage to do something like this."

Investigators were hoping to determine the motive of the 29-year-old suspect, who was detained at the scene but sustained injuries which prevented him being questioned on Monday.

Many shops on the cobblestoned main street cutting through the town remained shut on Tuesday. A parade that had been due to take place in the afternoon was replaced with an evening mass in the local church.

"I wanted to take the children to the parade yesterday but decided against it because the weather forecast said it was going to rain," said 67-year-old Marrianne Dechant, who was showing her three grandchildren the abandoned Sesame Street float boasting drawings of Big Bird, Grover and Monster.

"But next year I'm coming. Rain or no rain."